Review: Burnt Orange, Brighton

Brighton has always been one of my favourite places; colourful, eccentric, full of stuff. But it was only after people began thinking of it as a commuter base for London that the food scene really took off. And now you get little home-grown empires of dining to match pretty much anything in London, like the Salt Room and it’s new shoots the Coal Shed and Burnt Orange.

We stopped in Burnt Orange, the newest one, for Lunch. It’s a splendid room in an otherwise grungy little back road off the seafront. Mixture of bare brick but comfortable chairs and chic fittings; orange and smoke-grey hues predominate, to match the name. It’s a sharing plate menu and we sucked down a couple of very fine cocktails to get started.

Deep-fried pastry cigars stuffed with lamb shoulder made for a nice snack, though nothing too exciting. Mmm… by contrast, spiced dollops of beef tartare atop a perfect stick of crispy fried polenta was absolutely magnificent. It did actually make me do that embarrassing “MmmMMMMmmm!” noise that translates loosely as “ten more of these please!”

Another delicious starter was buffalo stracciatella on toast with preserved cherries. This combo of creamy cheese and savoury cherry worked beautifully and I actually found the big chunks of slightly ordinary tomato a bit of a distraction, though I can see why they’re there.

Of course, Burnt Orange is supposed to be about the grill, so our next couple of dishes came off that. Mangalitza pork belly skewers were delish, doused in Middle Eastern spices and paired with a pickled fennel salad. The fennel was a great foil, as alone the pork – though delicious – was very much all fat. Our other skewer was a prime chunk of duck, served up with plum and chicory. The grill-searing on the duck was spot-on and the plum worked well. Baked potatoes under a gooey cheese were a good side, impossible not to nosh. I should call out the smoked chilli harissa served on the side as an excellent relish – I just found it a bit odd because none of the dishes needed any extra sauce or flavouring.

All in all, a lovely lunch in a relaxing setting. You’ll probably spend £30 each for enough food, plus extra if you want pud. I’d go regularly if I ever end up with my dream pied a terre in the middle of Brighton.